egyptian baptism

You've heard of baptism by fire? Courtney and I got our very own Egyptian baptism this morning on our walk from the hotel to the ferry to cross over to the West Bank. The streets of Luxor are littered with caleches, horse-drawn buggies. The unattended horses laze along the sidewalks and take care of business there. In our heat-induced daze, we didn't see the stream of horse pee that was hitting the ground just two feet from us, which then splattered our legs. Can't think of a better way to start a two-hour long hike through the arid Valley of the Kings.

That said, the Valley of the Kings was pretty incredible. We even saw inside Tutankhamun's tomb, though it's a total ripoff. They charge 40 Egyptian pounds to get inside the Valley and 70 pounds just to see inside Tut's tomb. ($1 = 6 pounds) Luckily, I still have my student ID from Santa Ana College and I *am* going to be a student again in a couple months, so I've been getting half off admission most of the places we've been visiting.

Still, that's all we were able to do today. The 101-degree heat is too brutal to get anything else done. We came back at 2 for a shower and a nap. Courtney's gone off to look for a friend her family made when they last visited Luxor and I've been trying to upload some of my pictures to Snapfish. Finally got the CD burned yesterday, but even with an alleged DSL connection at the Nefertiti Hotel, it's taken about half an hour to upload a dozen pictures. I'll try to get the first few days of South Africa up today and will hopefully be able to post more from Sharm El-Sheikh. Shoot me an e-mail if you want me to send you the Snapfish album.

Last night we went to one of the five-star hotels to see a belly dancing and whirling dervish show. The whirling dervish was very cool, the belly dancer was pretty talented, but the Arabic pop dancing was something straight out of a cheesy music video in the 1980s. What made it better was they insisted on pulling me and Courtney up to join in the last dance of the night. Needless to say, Courtney was horrified, but stood her own. Luckily I'd drank a large Stella beer right before, so I was a little more willing to perform for the audience of mostly European tourists.

Still inundated by the Spaniards and today many Russians. I've only heard Americans maybe once or twice here. I guess the Middle East is still too scary for Americans. Though they shouldn't be. We pass through a metal detector to enter nearly every antiquities site and all the major hotels. Tourism police are everywhere you turn. We've felt very safe here. It'll be interesting to see how Sharm El-Sheikh compares after the bombings in recent years. In case you're worried, we're staying at a place called Shark's Bay (the shark part is what's freaking me out). It's just outside Na'ama Bay, the main touristic area. We should be fine.

We fly Egypt Air tonight and arrive around midnight. Everyone assures us it'll be much cooler in Sharm El-Sheikh. We're hoping and praying they're right. That said, Egypt Air ought to be an adventure, too. Keep your fingers crossed we arrive in one piece and with all luggage in tact.